


for me, it's you

by limpfishkit



Series: stay away from my friends cause i need them (to carry me) [2]
Category: GOT7
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mainly comfort, but not much and it's not at all graphic, markbum r bros 4 lyf, mentions of animal abuse, once again caroline cannot write anything besides pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 14:50:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9825257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limpfishkit/pseuds/limpfishkit
Summary: welcoming coco into the family is harder for some than for others.





	

"we're home!" youngjae's voice rang through the apartment. jaebum felt the vibrations in his head, only adding to the headache he'd had since the day before. jinyoung sent him a look as he audibly sighed when jackson ran past.

"WHERE IS SHE!" yugyeom screamed as he fell over turning the corner. jinyoung picked the boy up on his way past to get a look at the newcomer.

"right here."

the sudden outburst of squealing was nearly enough to turn jaebum's headache into a full on migraine. jaebum catches himself gnawing on his lip for the umpteenth time that day, and leaves the scene, hiding in the kitchen. it's a bit of a stupid thing to do, because he can still hear the cooing as clear as anything, but now he's just as tired as before and has to stand or lean against the counter that hasn't been cleaned in months. he sighs again, and decides to just pour himself a cup of water and take some meds, then try to have a nap.

he slips past the group of men (who by now sound like seven year old girls) seemingly unnoticed and goes to lie down, shutting the door to his and youngjae's room almost silently.

***

_earlier that day_

mark can feel the wind chill seeping into his bones, but he likes it. the best part of moving to seoul was probably the cold weather. despite his enjoying it, he hugs his coat a little closer as he and youngjae cross the street.

"that's the place there," youngjae points out a barely-visible sign with a small paw print on it. bambam squeals, and starts jumping up and down mid-step. mark chuckles at the two and they speed up.

they're welcomed by a young woman wearing a face mask who appears not to recognise them (or has the courtesy not to make a big deal about it). she asks if they're here for anything specifically or just to look around.

"we want to look at the maltese puppies," youngjae bursts out, barely remembering to tack on a "please". she asks them to follow her and they move to the back of the surprisingly large building.

"these puppies are about nine weeks old, and have had most of their vaccinations, including..." as they're walking, the woman launches into a lecture that leaves mark's head spinning. after a quick glance at bambam, who looks just as stunned as he feels, mark prays that youngjae knows what she's talking about.

the woman cuts off as they reach the back wall, and youngjae lets out a small gasp. there, in front of them, is a small enclosure with five of the smallest, whitest and most adorable things mark has ever seen. cuter than youngjae. cuter than jackson doing aegyo to jaebum. cuter than himself. mark can feel his heart melting, his sins being cleansed, and his worries being eased. he knows in his heart that they will not be leaving the store without at least one of these pure angels.

"can we pet them?" bambam asks in awe. the woman nods an affirmative.

youngjae and bambam are immediately at the edge of the fencing, baby talk voices engaged, and with five tiny bodies in front of them jumping up and making what mark is sure are supposed to be barks, but are closer to squeaks than anything. mark slowly joins them, happy to watch but also itching to just pick one up and - dare he say it - squoosh the life out of it. 

as soon as he's at the fence a small face appears in front of him, bright pink tongue out. his hoodie strings dangle above the puppy when he leans over, and the puppy goes crazy trying to eat them. mark laughs, delighted, and grabs a string to wave around for what he has nicknamed 'the cloud'. the cloud nearly gets his finger, and he laughs again, scratching behind its ears.

it takes mark a while of playing this game with the cloud before he realises youngjae and bambam (and the worker) are staring at him, still playing with the other puppies, but with knowing smiles on their faces. mark is almost distracted from the cloud, but looks back at it when he feels a weak bite to his finger. 

_i think the cloud is the one._

***

jaebum wakes up at about midnight, bladder close to exploding and stomach growling. youngjae is not in the bed next to him, and jaebum assumes he's still up gaming.

a few minutes later, jaebum exits the bathroom and heads to the kitchen, but is stopped in the living area.

youngjae has passed out on the couch (not for the first time) but the thing that stops jaebum in his tracks is mark, sitting on the floor playing with the tiniest dog that jaebum has ever seen. he freezes up and feels his chest tightening up. he's about to start edging back to his room when mark looks up. being mark, he doesn't say anything, but he smiles and nods a little and beckons for jaebum to come over. he looks... happy, jaebum thinks, fear clouding him. but jaebum cannot go over there.

jaebum swallows, heart beating faster than he remembers it doing for many years, his mind blank. he can't go over there, and he knows that. but he also doesn't want to annoy mark. or worry him. or let him find out. by now, jaebum realises he's been standing there far too long and it's now slightly awkward. when he focuses on mark's face again, the older looks slightly confused but no less happy.

when he tries to say something, jaebum comes up empty. how does he explain this? his throat isn't working anyway, so he works hard and manages a quick head shake. he can barely take his eyes off the thing, and prays it doesn't notice him. fortunately, it seems fairly occupied with eating mark's hoodie. when mark picks it up and gets up himself, jaebum lets out a small (but manly) squeak and stumbles back a bit.

"it's okay," mark soothes. "i'm just going to put coco in her enclosure." jaebum takes a big breath. he can do this. 

the thing seems unwilling to let mark go, but he distracts it quickly with a toy, and stands up, turning back to jaebum - to find the younger gone.

back in his room, jaebum shuts the door and huddles up into himself. he starts counting, focusses on imagining what each number looks like as he says them. slowly, he relaxes.

mark knocks on the door. "jaebum, can i come in? coco isn't with me." jaebum wants to say no. instead he grunts, letting mark decide what he means by it. the door opens and he inwardly curses.

"can i sit?" mark does not have the dog, as promised, so jaebum lets him.

as mark makes his way over, jaebum blurts out a harsh "close the door!" mark blinks, but does so, and heads back over to the leader. he sits next to jaebum, mimicking his position. he says nothing.

jaebum feels a veil of shame creeping over him. he knows he should be able to handle this, and he wishes he hadn't snapped at mark. "sorry," he mutters, barely audible.

"no worries," mark replies, but says nothing more.

so there they sit, the two oldest members, hugging their knees and staring at piles of clothes against the wall of the younger's room. jaebum starts counting again, but not out loud, and feels himself relax a bit further. he's not sure if it's the counting or mark's presence. the older has always had a calming aura for jaebum; for all of the members, really, but jaebum finds himself seeking it more than he believes the other members do. it's hard for the two of them, being introverts in a group like got7. jaebum has his moments where his energy gets the better of him and he lets entirely loose, but after those he finds himself overthinking and more worried than usual. those are the times where he goes to find mark. they don't talk much when they're alone, and jaebum enjoys it. he likes not feeling like he has to talk to be valued, or like he's making those around him uncomfortable by not talking. 

but for mark, the silence is pregnant.

"i'm sorry i forgot, jaebum," mark speaks, quiet as ever.

this confuses jaebum to his core. why is mark sorry? jaebum acted like a fool, and mark is not the dog, therefore is not the one who made jaebum so terrified. furthermore, what did mark forget?

"why?" is all jaebum can say.

mark looks over at him, equally confused. "what do you mean? i know you don't like dogs, i should have remembered and not pushed you to meet coco, or at least kept her away from you."

"but... how do you know that?" 

***

_3 years earlier_

mark finds jaebum in his childhood room. he texts jackson and jinyoung, lets them know they're okay and he knows where jaebum is, but tells them not to come. he and jaebum need to be alone right now. he's lucky jaebum even let him in the room.

the room is very much jaebum's, mark thinks; he can't quite imagine what jaebum was like as a child, but the room's messy order and artsy decor seem to scream 'jaebum'.

"hyung, can i tell you something?" jaebum whispers from his side.

"of course."

the younger takes a deep breath. he lets it go. and takes another.

"i'mscaredofdogs." mark has no idea what jaebum just said. was it even korean?

"huh?" is the intelligent response he comes up with.

"i'm. scared. of. dogs." jaebum grits his teeth around the words.

"oh." fantastic, mark. he must feel better already. 

but mark can't think what to say. he doesn't think there's anything wrong with that (though he can't understand it at all) but how on earth can he say that in a way that makes jaebum feel better? jaebum sprinting off in the as the four of them were walking into town was a bit of an obvious tell that he was upset, and mark just wanted him to be okay.

apparently the connection between mark's brain and his mouth is faulty, because he doesn't remember planning to just say "that's okay," and nothing else.

jaebum huffs a little. "it's lame, hyung. everyone loves dogs, right? they're man's best friend, they save lives, they can roll over on command, they can fucking shit sunshine, why the fuck don't i like them?" he laughs a little bitterly. 

mark tentatively asks why. somehow jaebum appears not to have been expecting that. it takes a while for him to answer.

"before we lived on the farm, we lived in a really bad area of seoul. our neighbours there ran a puppy mill. their older dogs used to terrorise the neighbourhood, they didn't keep them contained, so the dogs would just run free. they weren't nice to the dogs, either; most of them were psycho." jaebum pauses, unwilling or unsure of how to finish, it seems. "one of them attacked me."

jaebum takes mark's hand unconsciously. mark notices, but simply rubs his thumb on the other's smooth skin.

"it never got to me, my parents were there and... dealt with it before i could get hurt. but i had nightmares for years after that. i was really young, too, the doctor said i was so young my brain didn't know how to distinguish between animals so now i associate that fear with all dogs."

"so you can't... be around dogs? any of them?"

jaebum shakes his head.

mark sighs internally. he feels so bad for jaebum, he really does, but he also loves dogs to death. how the hell is he supposed to make jaebum feel better? he can't honestly say anything even slightly negative about the animals, and jaebum knows when he's lying. he doesn't know how to comfort jaebum without sounding patronising. all he could think at first was 'but dogs are just loveable'. 

then the boys make eye contact. mark can see the pain in jaebum's eyes, the tear tracks marking his red cheeks, his uneven breathing, his slightly trembling jaw. and all mark can do is reach out and wrap his arms tightly around his best friend.

jaebum has always been mark's rock, ever since they met, never worried, always confident in both himself and mark. seeing jaebum so broken is just... wrong. and mark vows that he will do anything in his power to never see jaebum like this again.

***

jaebum looks at mark in wonder. he'd completely forgotten the incident at his parents' house as well.

"i," jaebum starts. he doesn't know where to go with that, but forges on. "i... thank you?" mark laughs quietly.

"you're welcome," he replies. they sit in silence for a bit more, before mark speaks again. 

"i'll talk to youngjae. we can organise somewhere else for coco to live, and still go visit her on our days off, i'm sure he'll get it."

"no." jaebum will not do this. he saw how happy mark was, how his face lit up when he was watching the dog. he knows mark's been some kind of homesick but not quite ever since he last came back from america. jaebum realises that this dog is mark trying to make a new family here, something that feels more personal and less businesslike than got7 often does. jaebum will do anything to make mark properly happy again.

"i want... to get over this. my parents got a cat when i was younger to try and help, but i was never scared of cats. i want the do- coco to stay. i don't want to be afraid anymore." jaebum's not sure how much of this is genuine and how much is to make mark happy by keeping the dog around, but he feels it's the right thing to do either way.

mark looks at jaebum, sad and disbelieving. jaebum holds his gaze. "please," he whispers."

coco stays.

**Author's Note:**

> IT HAS ARRIVED
> 
> the continuation of that hurt/comfort series i promised like months ago lol
> 
> i hope you guys enjoyed it, i wrote the whole thing in under 3 hours while taking inspiration from [ this ](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/74/ae/38/74ae38cb6a0ec84f738d02ff8689dffb.jpg)and was surprisingly happy with what i did and i've barely edited it - srry for any mistakes but mA RKBU M. M U S T B E P O S T E D A S A P.
> 
> hope mark's not to ooc, i rlly don't know how much they communicate with each other off camera but reading it back i was like 'hmm do u rlly think he talks that much' 'damn u rite he dont' 'how to fix???' '.....' 
> 
> i do have a vague idea of what i plan to do with this series but if you have any pairings/themes you'd like to see i'm keen to read them, and i'll try incorporate some of them into the future fics :)
> 
> thank you so much for reading! love you <3


End file.
